Woman held, tells mother man she shot in Kent had raped her

Minutes after allegedly shooting a man outside a Kent Starbucks on Tuesday, a 24-year-old woman called her mother in tears as she prepared to surrender to police, according to court documents.

The Tacoma woman, a hotel employee and student, told her mother that the man who was shot in the face had raped her, according to an affidavit of probable cause released Wednesday. She also told her mother that she had a .45-caliber handgun in the car with her and that she planned to turn herself in to police, the affidavit said.

Video footage captured by a surveillance camera inside the East Hill strip mall captured images of the man and woman walking toward the coffee shop. Once they reached the door, the woman pulled a handgun out of her purse and shot the man in the head, according to the affidavit that outlines the police case.

On Wednesday, a King County District Court judge found probable cause to hold the woman on investigation of first-degree assault. She was ordered held at the King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

The man was in serious condition Wednesday in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Kent police, in the affidavit, didn’t specify the woman’s relationship with the man. A witness told The Seattle Times that the man said he’d been shot by his girlfriend.

Witness Mike Tyler, of Puyallup, said he was sitting in his parked car in front of the Starbucks at Southeast 208th Street and 107th Avenue Southeast around 12:30 p.m. when the shooting occurred a few feet in front of him. Tyler, a former Army soldier, said the gunshot he heard sounded like a firecracker.

Tyler got out of the car to help the wounded man, who was holding his left cheek and bleeding. Tyler told someone to grab towels and gloves as he compressed the wound.

Tyler said he didn’t see anyone with a firearm.

Police say the woman took off running after the shooting. She eventually turned herself in to Tacoma police.

When officers arrived at the strip mall, the wounded man, who has not been identified, was struggling to breathe, the affidavit said. He managed to write down the name of the person he said had shot him, police said.

Police said they found a .45-caliber cartridge casing outside the coffee shop.

The woman’s mother provided a statement to police in which she recounted her conversation with her daughter before her surrender, the affidavit said.

The deadline to file criminal charges against the suspect is Friday. If the woman is charged, documents filed by King County prosecutors to support the charges will likely provide more information on what police believe led up to the shooting.